From the Observatory

I don’t usually play hooky from The Rap Sheet for two whole days in a row, but I was feeling particularly rebellious this last weekend. An impromptu vacation seemed in order. But now it’s back to the business of news gathering.

• Bill Crider mentioned this already, but that won’t stop me from doing the same. Today is the 80th birthday of Harry Patterson, better known as Jack Higgins. I haven’t read a lot of Higgins/Patterson novels in recent years, but I still count his 1975 novel, The Eagle Has Landed, as one of my favorite World War II thrillers.

• Pop Culture Nerd catches Robert Crais spilling some passages and other information about his January 2010 Joe Pike novel, The First Rule. Get the scoop here.

• This week’s new short story at Beat to a Pulp comes from southern Arizona writer Keith Rawson. It’s called “Marmalade.”

• Editor Geoff Eighinger has decided to fold together his two Web sites. As he explains in Eastern Standard Crime, “I have a new plan for this site, which will now incorporate my sister site Crooked Web Zine. Starting on August 5 (or maybe later that month since this is kind of short notice), Eastern Standard Crime will become a bi-weekly .PDF publication.” He’s now looking for crime-fiction submissions of 500 words or more, as well as some new book reviewers. More information here.

• Winners of the 2009 Scribe Awards were announced last Friday Friday at Comic-Con in San Diego. The Scribes, of course, honor excellence in movie and TV tie-in writing. Among this year’s prize recipients were Greg Cox and James Rollins. A full rundown of victors, nominees, and their works can be found here.

• According to Euro Crime, Scottish novelsit Stuart MacBride (Blind Eye) has been named as the program chair for the 2010 Harrogate Crime Writing Festival. Dreda Say Mitchell will serve as program chair for that same delightful event in 2011.

• Nominations are in for the 2009 Davitt Awards, given out by the Australian division of Sisters in Crime. Forty-one books are under consideration in the Adult Fiction, True Crime, and Young Adult categories. A full list of contenders is here.

• He does have a point.

• This is a Jim Thompson novel I’ve never seen.

• And in anticipation of the release next month of Tower, by Ken Bruen and Reed Farrel Coleman, novelist and veteran interviewer Craig McDonald has interviewed both authors for the Busted Flush Press blog. You’ll find his discussion with Bruen here, and the one with Coleman here.